Arts Blog

Student musicians celebrate Chinese New Year

February 18, 2018

Members of Carleton's Chinese Music Ensemble, Global Music Ensemble, and Tang-Song Early Music Ensemble will celebrate Chinese New Year with a special performance Sunday, Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. in Kracum Performance Hall of the Weitz Center for Creativity.

Since its creation 12 years ago, the Carleton College Chinese Music Ensemble, under the direction of Gao Hong, has performed to much acclaim around the state of Minnesota and beyond. The students have performed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Mall of America, the University of Minnesota, The Confucius Institute’s China Day 2010 event at Northrop Auditorium, the ASIANetwork Conference in Chicago, the National Conference for Silk Road Scholars at the University of Minnesota, the Organization of Chinese Americans’ annual Chinese New Year Celebration, Winona State University, the Land O’Lakes Company’s Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Concert Series, The Schubert Club’s new concert series Cocktails with Culture, the Flint Hills International Children’s Festival presented by Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, and the Chinese Minghua Language School in St. Paul. In 2014, four members of the ensemble won medals at the Huian International Chinese Instrument Competition. In 2017, three other members were awarded gold medals at the New York Chinese Musical Instruments International Competition in New York City.

Ensemble director Gao Hong is an internationally renowned Chinese pipa player and composer. A graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where she studied with pipa master Lin Shicheng, she has received numerous awards and honors at home and abroad. In 2005, Gao Hong became the first traditional musician to be awarded the prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship, and in 2012 she became the only musician in any genre to win four McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing Musicians. She has received numerous commissions and has performed countless U.S. and world premieres of pipa concerti with organizations such as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Heidelberg Philharmonic, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, and many others. She is a Guest Professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in China.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4475. Kracum Performance Hall is in the Weitz Center for Creativity, located at 320 Third Street East in Northfield.